


Achilles's Promise

by Lthien



Category: The Song of Achilles, tsoa
Genre: M/M, Protective Achilles, achilles moves away, patrochilles modern au, patroclus grows up and gains courage, patroclus is adorable as usual, promises are kept, tags to be added later
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-01
Updated: 2017-01-01
Packaged: 2018-09-13 19:57:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9140014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lthien/pseuds/Lthien
Summary: “This is my promise to you. Wear it as I did. Protect it for me in my place. One day I will return for it.” For you. His words sang to me. I nodded wetly and threw my arms around his neck. We held each other until it was impossible to.Young Achilles and Patroclus have always been together. That is, until Achilles moves away...Will Achilles keep his promise? Will Patroclus see his beloved friend again?





	

**Author's Note:**

> This was in my Patrochilles Drabble but I've decided to continue this...:) I will try to update as frequently as possible!

Achilles and I had been friends since we were kids. When all else failed, we had each other. We loved with a fierceness no one could understand. Even we could barely comprehend it—this _love_. As a child, I wanted nothing to do with the world around me. I wanted nothing but Achilles. So, Achilles became my shield. I would cling to him when I was frightened, content on knowing I was safe. I would hide in the comfort of our naïve love, afraid.

Of what, I did not know. All I knew was that everything would be all right as long as Achilles was by my side. It was like that for many years. We were glued to each other. Wherever Achilles went, I would go too. Our parents appeased us, allowing our folly. We were children, after all.

“You’re okay,” Achilles would tell me. He would stroke my hair, and I believed him. Deep down I despised my weakness. I knew that I would not be able to hide forever. What scared me so? I still did not understand. Achilles did not seem to wonder as I did. He seemed happy. Like he wanted nothing else.

Our world was torn apart when Achilles was ten, and I nine.

Achilles was moving.

He was leaving, and I was distraught.

“You’re okay. You’ll be all right,” Achilles told me stiffly. He bumped our noses together. What a lie. He was all I knew. I felt like dying. “Don’t cry, Patroclus!” I did not want to listen, and my tears blurred him from my sight.

Our classmates made him cards. They were scribbled, and colorful, words of goodbye, and I hated them. Children I had never had the want to know gave him small gifts. Those days came in a blur. I did not want to believe it. I denied it with all my heart up until the day he was to leave.

We sat on my bed for a long time, quiet. We held hands, both of us trembling. Everything was changing. I did not want to let go. “I have something for you,” Achilles told me after a while. He let go of my sweaty hand. His eyes were blood-shocked and red. With grace that was only his, he unclasped the seashell necklace around his neck and handed it to me. I stared at it, my small fingers trembling. It was something he always wore. I had never seen him without it. His neck seemed more vulnerable somehow.

“Your mom gave you this. You should not give it away. Not to me.” Though I tried to give it back, my heart swelled as much as my eyes did. I held the necklace to my heart. “I know,” Achilles said. “This is my promise to you. Wear it as I did. Protect it for me in my place. One day I will return for it.” _For you_. His words sang to me. I nodded wetly and threw my arms around his neck. We held each other until it was impossible to.

I stood with my parents as I saw the gold of Achilles’s hair disappear from my sight, the car taking everything from me as Achilles’s parents had before it. My mom held my hand tightly.

“You’ll make more friends,” My father told me stiffly after the car was truly gone from sight. He knew what Achilles meant to me. They all knew. My mother nodded dopily and squeezed my hand again. I shook my head and ran to my room. I slammed the door and jumped in my bed. Underneath the shield of my covers, I wept. I wept for many days. I wept and held the smooth shell of Achilles’s necklace to my heart.


End file.
